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(Note: AEWCH is and will continue to be free as a podcast going forward, but AEWCH 50 is the LAST episode available publicly on YouTube. If you want YouTube versions of the show, go to patreon.com/connerhabib and sign up at any level; you’ll get instant access!)

Friends,

On my favorite episode of AEWCH so far, I speak with feminist author and radical, Mona Eltahawy. Mona is the author of Headscarves and Hymens: Why The Middle East Needs A Sexual Revolution, a book which has shaken the Arab world, feminist discourse, and also, on a personal note, has changed my inner life. Mona articulates what patriarchy is — and why it is our urgent task to resist it — better than anyone I’ve ever read or spoken to. Even if you have some resistance to the term (*ahem* hello, bros), Mona will help you see why this framing is so important. .

Mona and I talk about:

our sexual assaults and how we recovered and transmuted them into action

what patriarchy is, exactly, and how it enables and protects power

why enthusiastic consent is a problem (and how our consent is violated every day)

the urgent and political task of pleasure

why masculinity is a desire and the Brett Kavanaugh meltdown, where white male rage comes from

the way white people (particularly white women) pathologize Muslims (particularly Muslim women) without confronting their own issues

what we can learn about consent from porn performers

why sex isn’t and is special and why a sexual revolution is so important

Your pledge to my patreon keeps me going. With it, you get cool stuff and you’re part of my mission to bring deep, but easy to listen to, conversations about important ideas to the world. Pledges start at as low as a dollar per month. Contributetoday!

I’ve never met anyone quite as Marxist as writer and activist Malcolm Harris; at least not anyone I liked talking to this much. Malcolm and his excellent book, Kids These Days: Human Capital and the Making of Millennials, are utterly convincing arguments for Marxism. And his writing creates a powerful portrait of difficult times, and contextualizes the challenges millennials face, rather than just bemoaning kids.

On a hot Philadelphia day, Malcolm and I discussed the culture context millennials struggle in, why school is forced labor and homework is a hellscape, why academics fuck their own books over, the childhood ultimate ninja athlete challenge, why Only Fans can turn adult performers into bosses, whether or not anything exists outside the market, how homosexuality was exploited by capitalism (*cough* Grindr *cough*), why class relations predate capitalism, the history of (some) Marxists leaving out other struggles, why all workers “think of England” and none are overpaid, why protest does and does not matter, how we can’t usefully talk about fighting capitalism as violence, and what tactics we could be developing.

* Note: This is the LAST episode of AEWCH that will feature public access to the YouTube version of the show! Patrons at any level $1 and up get instant access to video versions of the show just for signing up! Click here to pledge now!

Happy to have another performer on the show for the first time: the amazing Missy Martinez! We talk shop, of course. We also talk about being in relationships while making scenes, what words we prefer for our nethers, eroticizing jealousy, the technicalities of intergenerational and family scenes, on how producers waste performers’ time, what it’s like to be on set, how adult can help you let go of racism, feeling fat. If I talked too much, it’s just because I was over caffeinated and Missy makes me gay boy nervous because she is INCREDIBLE.

Friends, I’m on Chapo Trap House (the biggest socialist media outlet in the US), talking about sex workers’ rights and why the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA), also known as the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA), have been disastrous for sex worker safety and livelihood.

And I’m also getting political with The Young Turks – By having their handsomest superstar, Hasan Pike on Against Everyone with Conner Habib!

Me + Hasan Piker from the Young Turks, connect our political and emotional development. Hasan is smart, hedonistic, and compassionate.

We talk about bullying, the hyper-regulation of culture, enthusiastic consent, why the context of someone’s entire body of work and life matters, Roseanne, Jon Ronson, the nightmare of straight men/straight women relational dynamics, and what we can do to improve the world.

My guest for AEWCH 28 is author, whore, and activist Maggie McNeill. On top of those qualifications, Maggie is an uncompromising and fierce thinker who gives me strength every day. Often, if I feel like I’m exhausted, faltering, or tired of the state sex workers’ rights, or cultural attitudes towards sex, I turn to Maggie’s twitter (which you really should follow), and am re-infused with my own sense of integrity.

We talk about how legalization vs decriminalization, sex work vs the state, the problem with enthusiastic consent, Stormy Daniels, SESTA/FOSTA, and more!

Yes friends, I have now DPed my podcast and web series with a second founder of Chapo Traphouse, Will Menaker (Felix Biederman was on episode 12), and I couldn’t be happier.

We talk about our respective activism burn outs, SESTA/FOSTA, Kamala Harris, what is the problem with adult entertainment anyway?, why we should prioritize pleasure over work, how different laborers are abused, Three Billboards… and how to hate it or like it, the literalness of culture, why you should definitely hate Call Me By Your Name, what so-called SJWs on college campuses are really upset about, and sensing the emergence of a new coherent political path.

Note – the sound of Will’s voice just makes me laugh because he is so. fucking. funny. So I giggle a lot like, like a goofball. Accept it.

Show notes are for patrons only, so if you’d like them, please become a patron! Your support for the show is HUGE and allows me to keep going at it. Thank you!

I’m so excited to have Abby Martin on the show! Abby is a radical political journalist, and host of Empire Files. She’s also an artist and activist.

Together, we talk how to sift through media and find trustworthy voices, politics, imperialism, Palestinian rights, and how to live in the intensities of our world.

Here’s a breakdown of the episode:

How Abby & I are CLEARLY Russian agents: 1:45

The Jill Stein Problem: 7:10

The longing for a politician we can believe in, no matter what he or she says: 10:00

The moment the scales fell from Abby’s eyes: 11:30

How conspiracies form when world views are shattered: 14:00

The exploitation of Seth Rich’s death: 16:00

Why gathering the evidence for a conspiracy is not enough: 18:35

La La Land as the expression of US anxieties: 21:30

Israel as a concentration of world issues and moral compass: 25:15

Media misrepresentation: 38:00

The difference between Chris Hedges’s despicable views on porn

versus Noam Chomsky’s dumb but responsible ones: 40:30

Thinking original thoughts and Wittgenstein’s struggle: 46:00

Stumbling your way toward better politics: 53:25

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For SHOW NOTES with links there to some of the books, movies, and people I mention in this episode. CLICK HERE for all that.